


falling

by gavorn



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-07
Updated: 2013-08-07
Packaged: 2017-12-22 17:17:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/915935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gavorn/pseuds/gavorn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Because sometimes it's hard to be brave, but it's even harder to be a coward</p>
            </blockquote>





	falling

They are sitting at their lunch table as usual. [Michael, Ray, a couple friends and the usual rotation of cheerleaders. Girls never last long at this table, not that Michael minds all that much.]

Michael is lost inside his head again when Ray pokes him hard in the side. He glares. "Ray? The fuck are you-"  
"Lover boy's staring again," Ray whispers, jerking his head towards one of the tables in the back of the caf. It is the reject table. Michael has never really paid attention to the reject table.  
Well, until this year.[there are kids there Michael never even knew existed. Apparently they had been going to the same school since kindergarten. Who knew?]  
This year there is Gavin Free.  
Gavin Free, Gavin Free, Gavin Free. The name goes through Michael's mind more than it should.  
He transferred from England this year. Not unusual, but there is something about him. Something _different._  
And he likes _Michael._   
Michael almost hopes he would just find someone else already. He is setting himself up for disappointment. This is not a disney movie where the lovable reject gets the head of the sports team.   
[Even if it were, Michael wouldn't be happy. He has no interest in this boy. He just likes watching him- oh, fuck, who is he kidding?]  
He is not like the boys at this school.  
The thought makes Michael almost uncomfortable. He wonders if other people get this way.  
Gavin Free, Gavin Free, Gavin Free.  
Michael has never considered himself gay before. Not now, either, he tells himself. This is perfectly averagely normal.  
"Dude."  
Ray pokes him again, and Michael wonders how long he was sitting there.  
"I got an idea," Ray says. Michael doesn't really care until he hears what Ray says next.  
"How about we throw Lover Boy some bait?" he says, and Michael takes a minute to process that he is talking about _him._  
Gavin Free, Gavin Free, Gavin Free.  
"Throw him some-wait. What?" Michael crinkles his nose, like he normally does when he's confused. It's just a reflex to him [even though the girls are apparently always talking about it.]  
Ray rolls his eyes at him.   
"I will give you _two hundred dollars_ if you ask him out."

A lot of things go through Michael's mind in the following moments.  
 _Does he know?  
Do I want to?  
Do I have to  
Why does Ray want me to?  
Would he say yes?_  
He ends up shaking his head to clear it.   
"I'm sorry, _what?_ "  
Michael's hearing is funny, like he's underwater. He hears Ray scoffing and finally clears his ears.  
"..you ask him out, he goes nuts, you never show, he freaks out, I pay you. That clear enough for you?"  
Michael puts this together now. Ask him out. That's clear enough. He goes nuts. Well, given. He _is_ Michael Jones.   
Never show.  
This is what confuses him [not enough to ask Ray again, just enough to not be sure where to go from there.]   
So he asks him out and then he doesn't show up.  
It isn't as if Michael has never done things of this sort before. He has. But this is different, like Gavin is different, and he's never really cared what would happen to the people being ditched before  
Ray is staring at him, so he just says "Yeah, sure, I'll do it." [he's not sure how he said that. Maybe his brain isn't connected to his mouth anymore.]  
"Well, go!" Ray is saying, nudging him up off his chair.   
Michael gets up and walks, and he sees people are staring, murmuring as they see where he is going.  
 _Why on earth is Michael Jones going to the reject table? Is he some sort of loser now?_ [he may not be able to hear them over the buzzing in his ears but he knows that is what they are saying, he is utterly certain and he is going to lose it all and they are going to give his seat away and-]  
He is there.

A table full of the faceless people, the below-average average are sitting there staring at him and between them all is Gavin, looking at him, eyes wide and blushing like a thirteen-year-old girl talking to her crush. [not a bad analogy, now that he thinks of it, but _Michael this is not the time_ ]   
"Do you need something?" one of the girls says, a blonde, looking pleased with herself for the comeback   
"Yeah," he says finally, swallowing hard. It feels like there's something stuck in his throat [Michael has always hated sore throats, more than anything really, so this is not a pleasant feeling]  
They stare for a bit more. He sees them whispering and knows they are saying things like _What is Michael Jones doing here?_ and _A football player? Here? At this table? Dumb jock._ and even _Michael Jones? He is sooo hot!_ [Michael knows he may have an over-inflated ego but hey, facts are facts. Especially when they are about his attractiveness.]   
They are staring. He is standing there, motionless, and he finally realizes what is happening.  
"So, Gavin," he starts, sees the blonde start whispering fiercely to Gavin. The two of them are both smiling and he thinks he just heard a squeal from one or the other, though he can't tell who.   
"Y-yeah?" Gavin says, clearly trying to play it cool after realizing Michael was waiting for a reply.  
"I was wondering if you might want to go to dinner friday night," Michael says as he shoves back his curls.  
[The blonde is squealing so hard now Michael almost wonders if she knows he was talking to Gavin and not her, not that he really _was_ asking him out and oh what did it matter]  
"I would love that," Gavin says, and the happiness on his face is so sincere Michael wishes for a second they were really going on a real date.  
Michael names the restaurant with an informal "I'll see you there at six," and walks away, hips swinging[dammit, why does he always do that?], face smug. _So there,_ he mouths to Ray, who looks a little impressed and a little irritated.  
"Wasn't sure if you'd go through with that," he says, making Michael wonder if he thought he was a coward or something.  
"Michael Jones never turns down a challenge," he says offhandedly, and the girls at the table start to nudge each other and whisper.  
"My money?" Michael turns to Ray, palm extended.   
"Hey, hey!" Ray says, pretending to be offended. "You haven't finished it yet, have you?"  
Michael rolls his eyes. "It's good enough, isn't it? I did the main part!"  
But Ray is a stubborn bastard when he wants to be, and finally Michael agrees he'll wait.  
\--

It is five-fifty when Michael looks at the clock and his stomach drops when he thinks of what is happening.  
He wonders, is Gavin there already? Or is he late? Maybe he's getting there now, maybe he is in his car driving as fast as possible, hoping Michael is not there already.   
Not that it matters.

He shakes his head and continues blasting the heads off of scaly, brown monsters. For some reason, he keeps missing.  
Michael throws down the controller and groans loudly as his character dies in a bright red burst of blood.   
Screw it, he decides. The phone is ringing, anyways.   
His stomach clenches as he thinks.  
 _That better not be Gavin._ [he wouldn't be able to deal with that, not like Gavin even has his number but still]  
It's Ray, he sees [that doesn't make him feel much better. He doesn't feel like talking to Ray right now.]  
He gets the phone anyways.  
"Oh, good, you're home!" Ray laughs. "Just making sure you're following through with the bet!"   
Michael hangs up the phone.  
It's not normally like him to get like this. Sure, he gets cranky and moody [oh, does he ever] but that's more of an act. He needs to keep up the persona. But he never, never takes people seriously, least of ever British dorks from the reject table.

Six eighteen.  
He feels a bit sick as he thinks of how Gavin is still there, how he still thinks Michael is just running late or something.   
[there is a part of him that whispers he could still go, he could still show up there and they could have a perfectly lovely evening together.]  
He swears to god his heartbeat is so loud Gavin must be able to hear it all the way across town.  
Is is getting hotter in here?

Because it may be hard to be brave but sometimes it's even harder to be a coward.  
Michael Jones has never thought of himself as particularly brave. He's only seventeen, after all.   
That doesn't mean he thought of himself this way, though.  
He is a coward.  
He knows this because if he was brave he would be there already, not sitting here, on his couch, alone.  
[gavin free, gavin free, gavin free. it runs through his mind like the catchiest song he has ever heard.]  
There are many alternate universes. Surely in some of them he went. He doesn't have to in this one.  
[Michael Jones is getting better at lying to himself, he thinks, but that is another lie.]  
\--  
Gavin Free sits alone in a dark italian restaurant.   
He is alone because Michael Jones is a coward.  
He sits there until closing time, when he goes home, calls Barbara and cries for a bit.  
He is fine in a matter of days.  
When he gets to school monday Michael punches Ray in the face.  
He quits the football team.  
[Gavin stops thinking about him, though every time he sees him dressed all in black out of the corner of his eye he wonders if things might've gone differently that night.]

**Author's Note:**

> So, um, that's that.  
> Inspired by a tumblr prompt that's been already filled a couple times anyways but I wanted to write so yeah.  
> If it seems weird or ooc or something, let me know! I'm new to this fandom, so that's why I could use all the help I could get.   
> Comments make my day, so if you like it let me know! ^_^


End file.
